paper installations

Not a wasteland 2013

Not a wasteland was originally made for the Euston Church crypt – Surface exhibition 2011. This instillation at The Peltz Room Gallery shows the piece altered for the space. I took the idea of the church and sacred spaces and drew on influences from the early christian notion of the wood and trees being the first christian/pagan symbols. Referrencing Albrect Aldorfer an early german romantic landscape artist who first incorporated landscapes into holy narratives – i projected and used parts of his depictions of trees and then cut them out of the black paper.

These are then inverted and hung touching the floor – so as to increase the idea of unseen growth, the top of the paper being at eye level and acting as a horizon. The title came by chance when i disovered that J D Salinger had written a book about a poets life journey called the inverted forrest – in it is the line ” Not a wasteland but an inverted forrest with all the foliage underground” . Show 9 – 25 May 2013 Birkbeck/ Peltz Room gallery

In 2011 I made a series of black silhouette cut outs to explore themes of loss this piece was made from a photograph taken at Chateau Chaumont in the Limousin france. The chateau is abandoned and was used to hide german families and children during the war. I made a short film Chaumont which explored this theme later.

Cut Black paper 100 x 300 cm

Made in 2011 as a floor or double paper hung work. Whilst working on Not a Wasteland for the Crypt show. The work references a lane leading to the ruin chateau Chaumont (central Limousin France ) where I made the short film Chaumont – See Home page.